John Daly-Peoples
Auckland Philharmonia Season 2021
In 2021 the Auckland Philharmonia is offering a wide range of music from the great classics to recent musicals and the music of popular culture.
Having missed out on celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary last year the APO will be presenting all the composers symphonies as well as performing his only opera, Fidelio. The seven symphonies will be spread out through the year with the first three symphonies performed in April and his Eighth and Ninth in November. Fidelio (May 8) will feature some of New Zealand’s great operatic talent with Simon O’Neill and Kirstin Sharpin who will be singing the role of Leonore which she sang last year for Melbourne Opera.
Among the other great symphonic works being presented will be Dvorak’s Symphony No 8 (From the New World), Brahms Symphony No 3, Schubert’s Symphony No 9 and Mahler’s Symphony No 5.
There is an excellent selection of violin concertos including the Bruch Violin concerto with soloist Benjamin Baker, the Brahms Violin Concerto (Benjamin Morrison) and Shostakovich Violin concerto No 2 (Natalia Lomeiko)
The orchestra will be playing a number of popular works such as Sibelius’ “Finlandia”, Ravel’s “Pavane for a Dead Princess”, Copland’s “Appalachian Spring Suite” and Bach’s “The Musical Offering”.
Orchestras around the world have been working on broadening their appeal to wider audiences and the APO has more than doubled its popular concerts for this year. Following the sell-out success of “Planet Earth II Live in Concert in 2019, they will present “Blue Planet II Live in Concert” based on the BAFTA Award-winning BBC television series. Another family concert will see the orchestra playing the music composed by Academy Award-nominated John Powell along with a screening of the film “How to Train Your Dragon in Concert”
“Aretha” will celebrate the music of Aretha Franklin with singers Boh Runga, Bella Kalolo and Vanessa Stacey while “Super Heroes will feature music of the superhero characters from Batman, Spiderman, The Avengers, Thor and Wonder Woman.
Another superheroes concert “Shoulder to Shoulder” celebrates International Women’s Day with a concert presenting the compositions of eight women including work by New Zealanders Ruby Solly, Rachael Morgan and Dorothy Ker. The other composers will be, Germaine Tailleferre, Reena Esmail, Hildegard of Bingen, Aida Shirazi and Julia Wolfe
The Deloitte Winter Gala will feature a full dining experience along with music from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Wicked”.
New Zealand Arts Review 